Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

KERN REGIONAL TRANSIT

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITES ACT OF 1990

POLICY AND COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

BACKGROUND:

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990. Its scope is similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The ADA goes further to prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities. The ADA defines a person with a disability as one who, “has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment”. The ADA guarantees persons with disabilities are able to participate in all aspects of daily living in the United States.

There are five Titles in the ADA.

Title I requires employers with more than 15 employees to provide equal access to employment to persons with disabilities as is offered to persons without disabilities.

Title II requires all public entities, meaning local and state governments, to provide access to all persons to all publicly provided services, activities and programs and prohibits denying access on the basis of disability. Title II extends the scope to include all public transportation systems regardless of the source of funding.

Title III prohibits private places of public accommodation from discriminating against persons with disabilities. Examples of public accommodations would be hotels, restaurants, private schools, movie houses, etc.

Title IV requires phone and internet companies to provide relay services that allow persons with hearing and speech disabilities to communicate via telephone. And, it requires federally funded public service announcements to have closed captioning.

Title V is mainly administrative and defines how ADA relates to other laws, insurance providers, and attorneys. It also has a list of conditions not considered to be disabilities.

POLICY:

It is the policy of the County of Kern, specifically Kern Regional Transit (KT) to comply with all provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), specifically to be in compliance with Title II. KT will not discriminate against any person because of a person’s mental or physical disability. Further, it is the policy of KT to provide its transportation services equally to all County residents. KT will take all steps reasonable necessary to ensure the disabled community has ready access to KT’s transportation services.

COMPLAINTS:

Any person who feels he/she has been discriminated against because of his/her disability may file a complaint. If the complaint is against an employee of Kern Regional Transit (A Department of the County of Kern), the complaint shall be filed with the County Administrative Office, Compliance and Accountability Officer, 1115 Truxtun Avenue-5th Floor, Bakersfield, CA 93301 (661) 868-3180. If the complaint is against an employee of the transit provider for Kern Transit (bus drivers, dispatchers), the complaint shall be filed with Kern Regional Transit, 2700 M Street, Suite 400, Bakersfield, CA 93301 (661) 862-5032.

A complaint may also be filed directly with the US Department of Justice online, by mail or fax.

A filed complaint with any of the three above entities, needs to contain the following information:

Your full name, address, the telephone numbers where we can reach you during the day and evening, and the name of the party discriminated against (if known);

The name and address of the entity or person you believe has committed the discrimination;

A brief description of the acts of discrimination, the dates they occurred, and the names of individuals involved;

Other information you believe necessary to support your complaint, including copies (not originals) of relevant documents; and

Information about how to communicate with you effectively. Please let us know if you want written communications in a specific format (e.g., large print, Braille, electronic documents) or require communications by video phone or TTY.